This invention relates generally to the production of "portion-controlled" meat products and more specifically, to the preparation of shaped meat products formed from various sized chunks of meat into a coherent block or loaf which may be sliced and subsequently prepared without breaking apart during cooking.
Various methods and apparatus have been developed in the prior art to cause the adherence of meat chunks to each other and in the development of molds so that the product can be formed into rolls or loaves as a convenience for subsequent cooking, slicing, and serving. Wilcox et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,497,361 issued Feb. 24, 1970, entitled "METHOD OF PREPARING A REASSEMBLED MEAT PRODUCT" and Maas U.S. Pat. No. 3,076,713 issued Feb. 5, 1963, entitled "PROCESSING MEAT" are illustrative of the several prior art methods of processing meat to form a unitary body which can be forced into a container or casing to thereby assume a predetermined size and shape. If cooked in the container, the product may generally be sliced without excessive breakage. However, slicing of the meat prior to cooking has not met with success, since the individual chunks of meat separate during subsequent cooking.
Siegel U.S. Pat. No. 3,290,721 issued Dec. 13, 1966, entitled "FOOD PRODUCT FREEZING DEVICE" discloses an apparatus for forming a food product in a container by freezing. Boneless beef cuts placed and frozen in an elongated tubular member upon expansion form an elongated, regularly shaped log or block convenient for subsequent cutting and packaging. Slidably mounted end caps in the tubular member allow expansion of the meat during freezing and maintain the ends of the log flat to minimize waste.
While these and other methods and apparatus disclosed in the prior art are generally satisfactory for the specific purpose for which they were designed, it has heretofore been impossible to provide a product generally completely free of voids within the mold and between the meat chunks and additionally, which is capable of withstanding subsequent cooking without loss of its geometric integrity. To overcome some of these problems, it is known to subject the meat chunks to high pressures within a container by means of hydraulically operated food presses commonly known to those skilled in the art. Typically such food presses include a forming die in which a ram is utilized to pack the product therein under extremely high pressure. Such presses are, however, expensive and include a multiplicity of specially designed dies, rams, and other components which must be maintained and serviced.
Grant U.S. Pat. No. 3,100,713 issued Aug. 13, 1963, and entitled "METHOD OF PREPARING MEAT" describes a basic method and apparatus for freeze forming individual chunks of meat into an integrated, unitary mass. Basically, Grant involves the steps of mechanically tenderizing meat or pieces of chicken by a pricking or punching process and then the subsequent step of placing the meat within a mold container and freezing whereby when the meat expands, the smooth outward configuration is returned to the food by its being forced against the surface of the mold. The resultant product is a substantially integrated loaf of meat having a smooth outer surface which may be sliced into various sized portions and then cooked and consumed in any desired manner. The Grant process, while providing an integral block of meat, is not controllable with respect to the pressures applied and the resultant density and regularity of the product. In portion-controlled processing operations, product regularity and density is of critical importance so that each and every slice of a given thickness will correspond extremely closely to the same weight and volume of meat.